I live in Brooklyn, and I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and saw a small roach run behind my toilet tank. As I was half asleep, sans glasses and in my underpants, there was little I could do about it - so I crawled back into bed. Right before I sank back into sleep, the last thought in my mind was "I don't think I want to live in New York forever." Waking up and watching Kat Gardiner's gorgeous mini-documentary ... Read More

  Wadjda (Waad Mohammed) is a straight-up badass. Under her traditional Saudi Arabian garb, the 10-year-old girl rocks Chuck Taylors, and her cassette player (yeah, she's that cool) screams indie rock from Grouplove.  All Wadjda wants is a bike, so she can race her friend Abdullah (Abdullrahman Al Gohandi), a boy from the neighborhood. Despite being constantly reminded that "girls don't ride bikes," Wadjda hustles money left and ... Read More

  Two women find unlikely friendship through a series of random events in Sean Baker’s film Starlet. Jane (Dree Hemingway) is a very thin, blond 21-year-old with a carefree attitude and a provocative lifestyle.  The story begins when Jane buys a thermos containing $10,000 at the yard sale of an older woman in her eighties, Sadie (Besedka Johnson).  Jane’s attempt to return the thermos and the money within it are ... Read More

Tiffany Shlain, the filmmaker who brought us reproductive rights documentary Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness and explored American Jewish identity via Barbie dolls in The Tribe, is back with Connected: An Autoblogography About Life, Death, and Technology.  It’s a film that touches on topics near and very dear to Shlain; as the founder of the Webby Awards, a ceremony recognizing the best of the Internet since 1996 (do ... Read More